The Millfield fencing team have been crowned 2022 Public School Overall Champions.

The team travelled to London for the championships, and were crowned Overall School Champions for the ninth year in succession having picked up a considerable haul of individual and team accolades throughout the week.

The Public Schools Fencing Championships returned this year after a two year hiatus as a result of Covid 19, and was hosted in its new home at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre, London. The three day event contains 18 individual competitions and six Master-at-Arms trophies, which are awarded for

being the best across all three fencing disciplines. The Public Schools' Fencing Championships is by far the largest fencing competition in the country, and is arguably the largest youth fencing event in the whole of Europe. Upper Sixth Alex Cupper was crowned Senior Boys Foil Champion, while also claiming third place in

the Senior Boys Epee category. Upper Sixth Ben Huckle was Senior Boys Master at Arms, while Lower Sixth Umar Badroel Rizwan claimed the silver medal in the Junior Boys Foil category.

Year 9 Evie Coyler was crowned Mount Haes Girls Champion at Arms, and shared third position in the Mount Haes Girls Sabre with Maisie Searle, while Andéol Drion was third in the Mount Haes Boys Sabre.

Millfield also collected an array of team trophies across the week, including: The Christy Trophy (highest number of points across boys Junior and Mount Haes Foil events), The Charles Gault Rose Bowl (Boys runner up in the Graham Bartlett Cup), the Ann Williamson Cup (highest points across all girls events), the Queenswood Cup (highest points across all girls senior events), the Brentwood School Cup (highest points across all girls junior events), the Bishop Challoner (highest points across all three Mount Haes girls events), the Keeble Cup (highest points across the three Epee girls age groups), the Nick Halsted Cup (highest points across all boys Foil age groups, the Johnson Cup (fencers in the last eight across all three age groups) and the Sydenham Cup (highest points across all three girls Foil age groups).

Millfield Head of Fencing, Mike Cleary, said, "Both the students and staff have worked hard this year

to restart the competitive nature of the sport following two years of no competition. The effort and

resilience of the students shows through the fantastic results they achieved this year; they all stepped out of their comfort zones to compete outside of their chosen disciplines. Each and every student showed fantastic team work, coaching and support towards each other during the event."

Millfield offers training in all three fencing weapons to students at the highest levels. Fencing is the fourth sport to have been given academy status at the school and is available to every student as a games option, irrespective of their age or skill, and offered as a sport option in Year 9. The school's purpose

built fencing salle contains ten training pistes each served with full electronic data recording equipment.